Credit Union Driver’s Ed: Look Out for Brand Blind Spots

If you’ve ever guided children through learning to drive (or if you remember going through the process yourself years ago), you probably remember lessons about the dreaded “blind spot.” The blind spot in your vehicle (window placement, pillar location, etc.) makes it difficult to see a particular angle without additional neck-craning. Yes, newer vehicles increasingly employ blind spot sensors and alarms to help, but nothing will replace good old-fashioned “turn your head and look” driving sensibility.

Blind spots are not just for drivers – credit unions can have “brand blind spots.”

What exactly is a “brand blind spot?” It’s any disconnect between what you promise as your credit union brand and how different audiences (staff and members) actually perceive, deliver and experience your brand. Below are a few brand blind spots to consider.

Brand blind spot: Our staff knows and lives our brand.

This brand blind spot refers to how your credit union trains to brand and hold staff accountable.

Have you trained your staff to your brand? How often (if at all) have new employees been exposed to the brand, learning about not only its importance but how to deliver it and how they are accountable for it? How often does your team (including management/leadership) discuss your brand, keeping it relevant? Your brand is a promise. How well are you delivering on that promise to members? Several studies, including a survey from Eagle Hill Consulting, indicated that in many retail organizations, only about half of employees have a firm grasp of things like core values and brand.

Your staff are your very best brand ambassadors, providing the critical unifying link between the experience your credit union wants to provide and the experience members actually receive. The honest response to this question is key to ensuring this potential brand blind spot is addressed: “How well does our staff know and live our brand?” If you cannot definitively say one way or the other, you could be heading for a brand blind spot wreck.

Brand blind spot: Our logo is our brand.

Or, “Our billboards are our brand.” Or, “Our marketing is our brand.” Or (insert another gazillion potential disconnects here). We hear this (and similar other examples) from credit union professionals who work hard every day to build the best possible place for people to work and trust their financial well-being as members. It’s also a common misnomer that is a potential brand blind spot.

Your logo, even if it’s the most attractive and visually engaging logo in the history of the world, is not your brand. Your billboards, even if they get honks and waves and smiles all day long, are not your brand. Your logo shirts, even if woven from the finest materials in the world, are not your brand. Other individual marketing efforts are not your brand.

While your visual appearance is an important element of your brand, it’s only one slice of the overall pie. Branding, ultimately, is much more cultural than collateral. Your brand is something that must start internally, with how your staff lives it with each other and then delivers it to members. A brand is not merely an external expression or look/feel – it’s cultural. It’s people. It’s your people; your staff. Think of it like a bicycle wheel. Elements like your marketing, training, human resources, IT and others are important spokes on the wheel. At the center of that wheel is your brand. Everything flows from it.

We like to share with credit union partners that “Your level of external service will never exceed your level of internal service.” Staff must treat each other as the brand calls upon them to do. When they do so, your brand is strengthened internally so it can spill over (like a full cup) in the way they interact with members. Remember, everyone is responsible for branding.

If your understanding of brand is limited solely to exterior visual elements or individual people/departments, you could be heading for a brand blind spot wreck.

Brand blind spot: Our brand is different.

Let me challenge you. Is it? Is it really? In partnering with hundreds of credit unions, coast to coast and all sizes, a key element of brand discussion includes differentiation. How is your credit union truly different than your competition? Very often we hear responses like “Our people make the difference” or “Our service level makes the difference” or “Our community involvement makes the difference.”

Guess what? I’m sure you do have terrific people at your credit union. I’m also sure you strive for a higher level of service and member satisfaction. You’re also quite likely involved in the community, which is outstanding. Do any of those things truly set you part?

No.

Every single competitor in your area can claim the same thing. Every financial institution loves to talk about their people and service. If everyone is claiming the same thing, is everyone truly different? No.

Differentiation means exactly that – being different. You simply cannot differentiate on people and service. Again, you want great people and you want great service but do those factors actually differentiate your brand from others? No.

Your competitors now include insurance agencies, wealth management professionals and internet digital startups, to name a few. Taylor W. Wells, Experience Director with On The Mark Strategies, noted, “Unless your brand claims and delivers consumer relevancy and authenticity, you are likely backsliding. There are no neutral brand experiences.”

A differentiated brand helps strengthen that promise made to members as well as rallying staff around a common culture and enhanced sense of purpose in their work.

To create, train to and deliver a unique brand experience, your credit union has to peel the layers of the onion back and find out what it truly is about you that is different. This is often expressed in a value proposition. The best way to ensure differentiation and establish that unique value proposition is through research, answering tough questions and working together to actually define that which sets you apart.

Your brand is a promise. Your brand absolutely has value, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Rosalie Bahakel Smith, SVP of administration and Gina Cannaday, assistant vice president of training and community Involvement with Legacy Credit Union ($646 million, Birmingham, Ala.) noted, “Our dive into unique and differentiating branding, while not always easy, has absolutely paid significant dividends for our credit union. Training staff to live and deliver the brand both with each other and our members continues to move key metrics in positive directions. If a credit union doesn’t have a truly unique brand, they are missing a key way to help ensure growth and marketplace relevancy.”

If your brand is not truly unique and compelling, you could be heading for a brand blind spot wreck.

Brand Blind Spot Cure

So how do you cure your blind spots? Here are four initiatives that will help:

• Your credit union must ensure its brand ambassadors (all staff) not only understand your brand but also live it every day (whether a manager is nearby or not). Consistent training, discussion, and well-defined expectations and accountability are key.
• Your credit union must admit its unique blind spots. While these conversations are not always easy, they are absolutely necessary if you want to build a lasting and thriving brand. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos put it well when he said, “A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.”
• Your credit union must develop a differentiating brand that sets you apart from the competition. Do you want to be store brand generic cereal or something vibrant, colorful, engaging and fun? Author and marketing strategist Seth Godin noted, “A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.”

Learning to drive safely, including looking out for blind spots, is a big part of driving success. Knowing and fixing your credit union blind spots is also key to your growth success.

Mark Arnold is founder and president of On the Mark Strategies, a Dallas, Texas-based consulting firm specializing in branding and strategic planning for credit unions.